


Kitchen Sink: A Pre-Crisis Story

by SharpestRose



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-18
Updated: 2011-07-18
Packaged: 2017-10-21 12:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/225171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I want to adopt him." -- Dick Grayson, Detective Comics 526</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kitchen Sink: A Pre-Crisis Story

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Jack, who is super nifty keen. Happy slightly-belated birthday, Jack!

1\. March

Jason keeps to himself for the first few weeks. He doesn't talk all that often, or cry, or show much sign at all of what he's feeling. When he sits, he's very still, and when he moves he does so like his joints are stiff and sore.

After Dick's own parents died, when he first got to the manor, he couldn't have sat on a couch without wriggling if his life depended on it. His energy had been frightening. He'd felt like the universe would cave in on him if he remained in one place for more than a few seconds at a time. But Jason just sits.

The costume the kid took from the Batcave is folded neatly on the top shelf of Dick's cupboard. Neither of them have mentioned it.

If Dick hadn't already started to feel like maybe he'd outgrown Robin, he would now.

After an almost silent dinner one night, on the Wednesday of the third week, Dick is washing up when Jason comes into the kitchenette and picks up a dishcloth.

"I don't want you to be my dad," he says firmly, in the voice of someone who has planned the words out in advance. He doesn't look at Dick, instead concentrating on wiping a glass dry. "Or my big brother, or a young uncle, or... you don't have to be my family, okay? I appreciate that you took me in. I do. But don't... they're still my parents even if they're dead, got it?"

Dick nods, and reaches out to touch Jason's shoulder. "Got it."

He feels much smaller in Dick's arms than he did when he was wearing the costume.

2\. April

After that, things are easier. Jason relaxes enough that Dick begins to get to know him properly. He likes sci-fi movies, and seems to delight in the clunky old serials that get shown on TV late at night.

They talk about their parents, sometimes, but more often their conversations find their way to the circus. It's nice to talk to someone who knows what that rush of performing can feel like; the smells and the intrigue and the way ordinary people seem exotic and weird beside the extended family of the big top. There's only been one other thing in the world that Dick's ever heard of which can match it, and that's Robin.

A month later, on another Wednesday, Dick is doing drying duty when he clears his throat, puts a fork in the drawer, and says "You ever think you might want to do the stuff I do?"

Jason appears to think about it for a moment, then shrugs. "Sure. Of course. I just figured you'd want me to get a handle on school and stuff before you asked me. Mom and Dad only let me perform if I was pulling in at least Bs, and I'm hardly at Cs right now."

"Maybe having more in your life would help you with school. A healthy balance."

"What would my name be? Robin and Jay sounds kind of cool, but it wouldn't be all that secret." Jason hands him another plate to dry. "There aren't that many birds with good names. Wait, I know." He gives Dick a wicked grin. "Swallow. I want my name to be Swallow."

Dick swats at his head with the tea-towel. "Grow up."

"It'll be even funnier when you're older and you change your title to 'the Man Wonder'. We'll get a whole new kind of fanmail, you wait and see."

"I was actually thinking that you could be Robin. If you wanted," Dick says, and forces himself not to hold his breath. He hasn't told anyone about his plans before.

Jason turns, the sink of soapy water forgotten. "Really? Who are you gonna be, then?"

"I was thinking 'Nightwing'."

"Hmm." Jason cocks his head to one side, like an antiques appraiser. "That's workable. Got a costume in mind?"

"Not yet."

"Can I help?"

"With the costume?"

"Yeah!" Jason's eyes light up. "It should be blue, I think. Not too dark. Maybe accents in a contrasting shade. Do you have a strong opinion on necklines? Hey, should I leave my hair like it is, or dye it? Would Robin look okay as a blond? I can't really picture it, but that doesn't automatically mean it's not a good idea."

Sudden visions of Jason and Bette forcing all the Titans to submit to makeovers dance through Dick's brain. They're disturbingly plausible.

"Uh," he says. "Yes to blue, no to necklines, have your hair however you like. I think bystanders will twig what's happened when they see us side by side anyway."

Jason grins broadly. "Nightwing and Robin. Now _that_ sounds great."

  
3\. August

"What do you think of Tara?" Dick asks, putting the first of the night's dishes into the sink.

Jason looks up from his homework, strewn across the dining table. "Want me to dry?"

"No, it's cool, you keep at that. She's a nice kid, don't you think?"

"Um, Dick, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but I'm not much for the womenfolk." Jason smirks, then mimes thoughtfully stroking a beard. "Which is not to say that I would recoil in horror if Kory ever wanted to learn French really fast."

Dick rolls his eyes. "I didn't mean like that, twerp. I just thought that maybe now you've spent some time around my team you might have a feeling about them. She's closer to your age than mine."

"She seems friendly, I guess. We didn't talk much. Why?"

Dick shakes his head. "It's probably nothing. Nevermind. How's the geometry?"

"Stupid."

"No, I was asking about the geometry, not you."

"You're hilarious, Man Wonder."

"Only compared to your pathetic jokes, Little Wing."

  
4\. November

"Cocoa?" Dick asks, getting down two mugs without waiting for the answer. It's a rare pizza night, so washing up consisted of putting the box in the garbage with the greasy napkins they used as plates.

Jason has balanced a chair on its front left foot, and it currently easing himself up into a handstand on the righthand tip of the backrest.

"If you kill the linoleum, you're paying for it."

"It's evil linoleum, it must be vanquished," Jason says distractedly, bare feet brushing the ceiling.

"Don't kick the light fixture. It's beside your ankle," Dick warns as he puts the kettle on.

"Did you have a crush on Batman when you were my age?"

"Why do you ask?"

Against all logic, Jason manages to shrug without disrupting his balance. "Just wondering. Because I'm made up of all these parts of stuff which used to be other people, you know? Some of me's the old Jason, obviously, but I'm someone else to who he was. And some of me's from my Mom and from my Dad, and some of it's your lousy influence over my recent upbringing, and a whole bunch of it is Robin. And Robin -" Jason shifts his weight onto his other hand and scratches his ear. "Was you before he was me. And I want to know if it's a Robin thing or a Jason thing."

"You have a crush on Batman?"

"Didn't you? I mean, you _lived_ with the guy, and I only see him when we're all teamed up."

"You live with me. Doesn't mean you've got a crush on me."

Jason looks at Dick and waggles his eyebrows. Since he's upside down, the effect is ridiculously creepy. "Don't I?"

Dick decides his time is better spent pouring out their drinks than it would be responding to that. "C'mon, get down, I'm not letting you drink hot liquid out of a mug while you're upside-down. I hear social services frowns on that."

Jason folds himself down until his feet are back on the floor. There's a toe-shaped smudge on the ceiling. "You didn't answer my question."

Dick sighs. "Just drink your cocoa." One of these days, he's going to start putting tranquilizers in it.

  
5\. March

Dick can't remember ever seeing Jason in the Robin uniform in this part of the apartment. He looks out-of-place, like a bad special effect in a film. The Jason Dick is used to seeing by the kitchen window isn't one in a mask and a cape.

"The sky's so many different colours," Jason says quietly, sensing the Dick's come into the room. "It's like a sunset, only a million times more. The sunset of a whole world, not just one day."

Dick, now standing close, squeezes Jason's shoulder."Hey, don't. Thoughts like that are reserved for Bruce, you hear me?"

Jason gives him a half-hearted smile before turning back to the window. "Yeah, fine. No sense in greeting the end of the world with a _frown_ or anything."

"Jay. Things will be okay." He's heard what people are saying. The word 'crisis' is gaining rapid popularity. But he still says the words to Jason like he believes them. "We'll be all right. And if we're not, well, that's that I guess. Hey, I tell you what: When this is done, we'll redesign our costumes. You're always bitching that I don't wear the collar like I mean it. There's something to look forward to."

Jason takes a deep breath, his throat sounding a little closed up. "My parents were gonna name me Richard, y'know. Mom's water broke near the lion cage and I was born right there, and so Dad said I was lionhearted. But they really liked Greek myths, so they went with Jason instead. If I was a girl, I was gonna be Ariadne."

"Would've made things confusing for us both if you'd been a Richard, wouldn't it? An identity crisis."

Jason laughs a little, and leans against Dick. "I'm scared."

"Me too."

"I hear it's more comforting to answer 'don't be', or 'things will turn out fine', you know."

Dick gives him a light mock-smack to the side of the head. "I said that already. You ignored me, as usual."

"Why break a pattern that works?" Jason asks, deadpan, and gives Dick a real -- if slightly wobbly -- smile. "C'mon, Nightwing. Let's go save the world."

"Right beside you, Robin."


End file.
